Michael Harner

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Michael Harner (born April 27, 1929) is the founder of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies, the formulator of "core shamanism," and one of the primary proponents of neoshamanism. He was trained as an anthropologist, having taught at Yale, Berkeley and at the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research in New York City, where he chaired the department. Harner's reputation as an academic was essentially destroyed when he "went native" and began to represent himself as a shaman.

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[edit] Career

Harner conducted fieldwork in the Upper Amazon, western North America, the Canadian Arctic, and Samiland (Lapland). He studied the Jívaro Indians of the Amazon (now known as the Shuar), and a wide range of shamanist cultures.

In the late 70s he suggested that the Aztecs had resorted to organized cannibalism on a vast scale to make up for an assumed protein deficiency in the diet, mostly due to lack of any large domesticated animals, a scarcity of game and the lack of plant-based protein. Human sacrifices had indeed been a central aspect of Aztec religion and the theory initially gained some scholarly support. However, since then it has been shown to be based on unfounded or highly speculative assumptions about eating habits, agriculture, nutrition and demographics, making it an entirely unlikely scenario.[1]

He also reported on the central role of psychedelics in shamanic practices and many tribal cultures. Harner described his own initiatory ayahuasca experience in the Amazon jungle in his book The Way of the Shaman. It provides an account of their importance to some shamanic traditions, their ability to introduce new world-views and effect personal transformation, and their capacity to render researchers more sensitive to, and comprehending of, the cultures and practices in which they are used.

The Way of the Shaman is one of the early texts in the neoshamanism movement. Like Castenada's novels, it provided a mythic context for shamanic practices. Part of the popularity of Harner's book is explained by the fact that, in contrast to so-called hallucinogenic shamanism that was popular with spiritual seekers in the 1960s and the 1970s, "The Way of the Shaman" began to popularize "safe" spiritual techniques based on drumming, rattling and guided meditation. This resonated with the changing spiritual tastes of Western "New Agers."

According to Daniel Noel, at Berkley, Harner sat on Carlos Castenada's dissertation committee; Castenada's dissertation was "Sorcery: A Description of the World," which he later published with few changes as Journey to Ixtlan.[2] Susan Grimaldi wrote an article for Shaman's Drum magazine, published by Harner's Foundation for Shamanic Studies, in response to Noel's book.[3] Grimaldi notes that Harner never taught at UCLA where Castenada was a graduate student. Harner's own departure from academic anthropology to become what Daniel Noel termed a "shamanthropologist" came with the publication of The Way of the Shaman as a "how-to" guide for people outside of shamanistic cultures to become "shamans." The Foundation of Shamanic Studies, created in 1985, published more books along these lines, and offers weekend seminars and for-fee classes to the same end.

In 1987, he left academia to devote himself to full-time work with shamanism, and created the Foundation for Shamanic Studies. The foundation funds research and publications, offers worldwide trainings in shamanic practices, has an international membership, and has reintroduced shamanic practices to parts of the world where the tradition was lost or suppressed.

His publications include the books: The Way of the Shaman, Hallucinogens and Shamanism, The Jívaro, and a coauthored novel, Cannibal.

Roger Walsh and Charles S. Grob in an interview with Michael Harner in Higher Wisdom wrote that:

"What Yogananda did for Hinduism and D. T. Suzuki did for Zen, Michael Harner has done for shamanism, namely bring the tradition and its richness to Western awareness."[4]

[edit] See also

[edit] Bibliography

  • Harner, Michael, The Jivaro: People of the Sacred Waterfalls (University of California Press 1972)
  • Harner, Michael, Hallucinogens and Shamanism (Oxford University Press 1973)
  • Harner, Michael, The Way of the Shaman: A Guide to Power and Healing, Harper & Row Publishers, NY 1980

[edit] References

  1. ^ Ortiz de Montellano, Bernard R. (1990) Aztec medicine, health, and nutrition. ISBN 0-8135-1562-9. p 85-86
  2. ^ Noel, Daniel, The Soul of Shamanism: Western Fantasies, Imaginal Realities, Continuum International Publishing Group, 1999.
  3. ^ http://www.susangrimaldi.com/docs/harner.pdf Observations on Daniel Noel's The Soul of Shamanism: A Defense of Contemporary Shamanism and Michael Harner. Retrieved April 27, 2008
  4. ^ Higher Wisdom, Roger Walsh and Charles S. Grob, eds. Albany: State University of New York Press. 2005.

[edit] External links